This is a mid-day update about trying to get a White House daily press pass to cover a briefing. We don't generally do this, but we're having an especially frustrating day.

After three days, we realized this morning that the phone call route wasn't working -- especially since they seem to have stopped answering the phone at the Media Affairs Office. We asked our boss and MediaBistro's editor, Elizabeth Spiers (a "real" journalist for sure), to fax a letter requesting access on our behalf.

No one has answered the phone in the Media Affairs office all day. Because we were initially concerned that Jenny, Caroline, and John had just stopped answering our calls, we tried calling this morning from a different number: No luck. Elizabeth also had no luck calling from her office. What's going on here?

Does anyone have a fax number for the White House Office of Media Affairs? Anyone have any other ideas? Drop us an email: garrett AT mediabistro DOT com.

As an aside and a preview of a larger post for the future, we never meant this to be an absurdist comedy. We really just wanted to cover a briefing--perhaps the most famed journalism institution in the city--and write about the atmosphere. This was supposed to be simple. Everyone we talked to last week said the White House would almost surely grant a pass without much hesitation. It's been four days and we haven't even been able to speak to a person to make our case for covering a briefing. Nothing. Ugg.